Hi! I have a highly gifted child who turns 5 in mid-November, which is 6 weeks after the cutoff date for starting kindergarten this year. We are planning for him to go the same gifted school that his 2nd grade sister is attending, but should we apply for early admission so he can start this fall, or should we wait until next year?
I've heard a lot of pros and cons about starting kindergarten early. Some people say you should wait so that the child is more socially-emotionally mature. I also saw an article about a study saying that starting kindergarten early is correlated with increased ADHD (but I don't have access to the original study, so I don't know whether it's a causal relationship or just a correlation -- e.g., gifted kids are more likely to both have ADHD and start kindergarten early -- does anyone have more info on this study?)
Others say kids should be with intellectually-matched rather than age-matched peers, which suggests that starting earlier is better. He will be attending a gifted school, so he will have intellectually-matched peers regardless, but my feeling (based on comparison with his sister and her experience at school) is that if he's the youngest in the gifted class, he will be more likely to be intellectually-matched with his classmates than if he's older. It would also be great for him to be with other gifted kids (with whom he would fit in better personality-wise) and with a teacher who specializes in gifted students.
And we have selfish reasons for wanting to start kindergarten early too: it would be nice to save $12,000 (kindergarten is free, and childcare/preschool are not!), and it would definitely be more convenient to have both kids at the same school and on the same vacation schedules.
Basically, I'd love to start him in kindergarten this fall, and I think he would probably do well and enjoy it, but am I risking lifelong problems like ADHD if we do that? I'd love to hear others' input and advice! Thanks!
